Horie Kuwajirō (堀江鍬次郎; 1831–1866) was an early

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

and science writer. Horie studied ''

rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: , ), and by extension , is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the countr ...

'', specifically chemistry, at the

Nagasaki Naval Training Center The was a naval training institute, between 1855 when it was established by the government of the Tokugawa shogunate, until 1859, when it was transferred to Tsukiji in Edo. During the Bakumatsu period, the Japanese government faced increasing ...

where J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort was an instructor. In addition to chemistry, Pompe van Meerdervoort taught photography. When Swiss photographer Pierre Rossier arrived in Japan in 1858 on a commission from ''

Negretti and Zambra Negretti is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Ettore Negretti (1883–after 1902), Italian footballer * Giovanna Negretti, American activist * Henry Negretti (1818–1879) of the firm Negretti and Zambra * Jacopo Negretti (14 ...

'', he taught wet-collodion process photography to Horie and others, including his friend Ueno Hikoma (1838–1904) and Maeda Genzō (1831–1906). It is possible that Horie accompanied Rossier around Nagasaki while the latter took photographs of priests, beggars, the audience of a ''

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

'' match, the foreign settlement, and a group portrait of

Philipp Franz von Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveller. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora (plants), flora and fauna (animals), fauna and the introduction of ...

's son

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

and several samurai. In 1860 or 1861 Horie bought a wet-plate camera. The purchase, which included photographic chemicals, was funded by the

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

of the

Tsu Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Ise Province and in Iga Province in what is part of now modern-day Tsu, Mie. It was centered around Tsu Castle. Tsu Domain was controlled by the '' tozama'' Tō ...

Tōdō Takayuki was the 11th ''daimyō'' of Tsu Domain under the late Edo period Tokugawa shogunate and the 19th hereditary chieftain of the Tōdō clan. Takayuki's sudden betrayal of the Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Toba–Fushimi during the Boshin War ...

, and the price was 150 ''ryō''. Apparently the photographic equipment was of such interest to Ueno that he chose to become a subject of Tsu Domain in order to have access to it at the clan residence in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

. In 1861 Horie photographed Ueno at work in the Tsu Domain's laboratory in Edo (now

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

). In 1862 Ueno and Horie co-wrote a textbook titled ''Shamitsu Kyoku Hikkei''Bennett gives the transliterated title of the book as ''Seimikyoku Hikkei'', "A Handbook to Science". Bennett, p. 49. that comprised translated extracts from ten Dutch science manuals and which included an appendix titled ''Satsueijutsu'' he Technique of Photographydescribing techniques of collodion process photography as well as

Nicéphore Niépce Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (; 7 March 1765 – 5 July 1833) was a French inventor and one of the earliest History of photography, pioneers of photography. Niépce developed heliography, a technique he used to create the world's oldest surviving ...

's asphalt printing method. The appendix also provided the first published account in Japan of lithographic printing. Horie himself taught pharmacology to

Uchida Kuichi was a pioneering Japanese photographer from Nagasaki. He was greatly respected as a portrait photographer and was the only photographer granted a sitting to photograph the Emperor Meiji. Uchida was adopted at the age of 13, following his fath ...

, who later became a celebrated photographer in his own right.

Notes

References

* Bennett, Terry. ''Early Japanese Images.'' (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 1996), p. 49. * Himeno, Junichi. "Encounters With Foreign Photographers: The Introduction and Spread of Photography in Kyushu". In ''Reflecting Truth: Japanese Photography in the Nineteenth Century'', ed. Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Mikiko Hirayama. (Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004), pp. 21–25. Japanese photographers Pioneers of photography 1831 births 1866 deaths {{Japan-photographer-stub